Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)

A WORKMAN, felling wood by the side of a river, let his axe drop - by
accident into a deep pool. Being thus deprived of the means of his livelihood,
he sat down on the bank and lamented his hard fate. Mercury appeared and
demanded the cause of his tears. After he told him his misfortune, Mercury
plunged into the stream, and, bringing up a golden axe, inquired if that
were the one he had lost. On his saying that it was not his, Mercury disappeared
beneath the water a second time, returned with a silver axe in his hand,
and again asked the Workman if it were his. When the Workman said it was
not, he dived into the pool for the third time and brought up the axe
that had been lost. The Workman claimed it and expressed his joy at its
recovery. Mercury, pleased with his honesty, gave him the golden and silver
axes in addition to his own. The Workman, on his return to his house,
related to his companions all that had happened. One of them at once resolved
to try and secure the same good fortune for himself. He ran to the river
and threw his axe on purpose into the pool at the same place, and sat
down on the bank to weep. Mercury appeared to him just as he hoped he
would; and having learned the cause of his grief, plunged into the stream
and brought up a golden axe, inquiring if he had lost it. The Workman
seized it greedily, and declared that truly it was the very same axe that
he had lost. Mercury, displeased at his knavery, not only took away the
golden axe, but refused to recover for him the axe he had thrown into
the pool.

George Fyler Townsend's translation of the fables, first published in 1867, is
in the public domain and can be found at many websites, including Project
Gutenberg.
Illustrations come from: Aesop's Fables, by George Fyler Townsend, with
illustrations by Harrison Weir, 1867, at Google
Books.